Mexican shoppers may end year strong

Julia Paramo, son Joaquin Capistran and husband Joaquin Capistran sort through purchases and receipts at a Texas Tax Back office, which helps international visitors get sales tax refunds.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/San Antonio Express-News

Maria Guadalupe Valdez files out paperwork to collect sales taxes at Texas Tax Back before heading back to Mexico. The day after Christmas kicks off a busy time of year for companies like Texas Tax Back which helps international visitors quickly collect sales tax refunds.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/San Antonio Express-News

Cristina Legaspi sorts through a customer's receipts at Texas Tax Back, a company which helps international visitors collect sales tax refunds. The day after Christmas kicks off a busy time of year for the company.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/San Antonio Express-News

Julia Paramo, her son Joaquin Capistran sort through their purchases and recepits as her husband Joaquin Capistran files out a form to collect a sales tax refund on Wednesday Dec. 26, 2012 at Texas Tax Back.

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As San Antonians packed stores and shopping centers to return unwanted presents and redeem gift cards Wednesday, Mexican nationals visiting the city kicked off a shopping spree that state data suggest will outperform their spending here during the rest of the year.

Overall, in the U.S. economy, the final week of December accounts for only about 15 percent of the month's overall sales, according to Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse. But experts predict that Mexico's improving economy, a stronger peso and the traditional post- holiday retail sales should instead prompt Mexican nationals to spend more lavishly than usual through New Year's Day.

In Texas, international shoppers can receive sales tax refunds on merchandise bought here. The value of those refunds, also known as manifiestos among Mexican nationals, reached nearly $47,000 in San Antonio on Dec. 26 last year, according to records from the state comptroller's office.

Since 2009, Dec. 26 has proved to be the season's biggest day for such refunds. The total value of sales tax rebates issued the day after Christmas has remained about 150 percent larger than those issued on the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, which is regarded as one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

“We are busy through Dec. 24, but it's nothing like after the holiday,” said Diana DeWall, vice president of marketing for Texas Tax Back.

Her family-owned business operates four offices in San Antonio shopping centers and helps international shoppers collect immediate refunds on the sales tax charged on clothes, electronics and other goods.

While Texas Tax Back maintains its normal business hours during the weeks before Christmas, DeWall said, it's common for the company's workers to arrive at work an hour earlier or stay an hour late between Dec. 26 and New Year's Day.

“It's not business as usual,” she said. “We hire temporary (workers) and need that additional help.

“We're steadily busy from after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve, and then it just picks up heavily for us afterward. It would probably be safe to say it's stronger than Holy Week,” DeWall added, referring to the days between Palm Sunday and Easter, when Mexican tourists swarm South Texas stores.

The value of manifiestos issued in San Antonio on Dec. 26 peaked in 2009 at more than $55,000, a 41 percent gain over 2008. That increase nearly evaporated in 2010, when tax refunds were less than $45,000 on the day after Christmas.

But tax rebates on Dec. 26 last year rose 6 percent, which Nivin said could have been a reflection of the 5.5 percent growth that the Mexican economy enjoyed in 2010.

“There might be a lag in this — a hangover effect, if you will,” he said.

DeWall suggested that Mexican nationals also might shop more during the week after Christmas because many of them wait to open presents on Día de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day, on Jan. 6.

Outside the Texas Tax Back office at North Star Mall on Wednesday, the Tiscareño family said they opened their gifts on Christmas Eve. Still, patriarch Jose Tiscareño said he wanted to find the best post-Christmas deals on gifts that he planned to take back to his relatives in Monterrey.

“He just got a new job at an engineering company, so we have more money to spend this year,” said son Eduardo, 15, translating from Spanish. “We visit (San Antonio) every year after the Christmas holiday, and we always spend most of our time at the mall.”

The teen eagerly waited as his mother collected about $50 from Texas Tax Back.